Citation

Hunter WW, Huang HF. Transp. Res. Rec. 1995; 1502: 45-57.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The research presented in this paper was conducted as a supplemental activity to the National Bicycling and Walking Study, with the objective of answering the question, "If a facility is built, how many people will use it?" The first section of this paper examines temporal patterns in the number of bicycle trips along bicycle lanes and trails. Hourly user counts averaged roughly 100 bicyclists per location for lanes in Gainesville, Florida, Madison, Wisconsin, and Phoenix, Arizona, and a trail in Raleigh, North Carolina. Trails in Washington, D.C. and Seattle, Washington attracted twice as many daily users on weekends as on weekdays; at one bicycle lane location in Madison, bicycle volumes on Saturday were half those on weekdays. Counts from trails in Eugene, Oregon, Washington, D.C., and Madison were generally three to five times higher during the summer months than in the winter. Since 1987, the average volumes per location along bicycle lanes in Gainesville, paths in New York City, and a trail in Madison have ranged from 400 to 1,200 bicycles per day. In Eugene, the installation of bicycle lanes increased bicycle traffic along the routes by up to 40%. This study also reports information on the mix of bicyclists and pedestrians found on multiuse trails. On trails in Florida, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C., and on one bicycle lane in New York City, bicyclists comprised three-fourths or more of all users. For two bridges in New York City and a trail in California, pedestrians dominated.

Language: en

Keywords

Bicycles; Roads and streets; Street traffic control; Transportation routes; Urban planning